No official announcement is scheduled until 10 a.m. Wednesday, but Paul McCartney is set to return to San Diego for his first public performance here in 38 years.

His Petco Park concert, which will take place Sept. 28, comes 50 years after he performed his first U.S. tour with The Beatles in 1964.

Apart from a private party McCartney played in early 2003 in Rancho Santa Fe, this will mark his first show here since he and his then-band, Wings, performed in 1976 at the San Diego Sports Arena. That venue is now known as Valley View Casino Center.

On Tuesday, the San Diego Padres and AEG Live/Goldenvoice issued identical news releases. Both touted an “online announcement” at 10 Wednesday morning “of a major entertainment event coming ‘OUT THERE’ to San Diego’s Petco Park.”

“Out There” is the name of McCartney’s ongoing world concert tour. His international concert trek resumed Saturday in Albany, N.Y. with a three-hour show that earned rave reviews. It was his first live date since he postponed a series of concerts in May in Asia, after he was briefly hospitalized with a virus.

AEG Live/Goldenvoice is the promoter of all U.S. dates on McCartney’s “Out There” tour, including his previously announced Aug. 10 concert at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. AEG owns a controlling interest in Valley View Casino Center and exclusively books the Humphreys Concerts by the Bay series on Shelter Island.

Tuesday’s news release included an invitation to “watch the announcement online at www.padres.com/live.” On Tuesday, that website was playing nonstop excerpts of songs from McCartney’s latest album, “New.”

By coincidence, McCartney’s former Beatles’ band mate, Ringo Starr, performs here at Humphreys Friday with the current edition of his group, the All-Starr Band.

It remains to be seen exactly when might McCartney, 72, and his four-man group will perform at Petco Park. His Aug. 10 Dodger Stadium concert will be followed by an Aug. 12 date at the US Airways Center in Phoenix and an Aug. 14 show at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, where The Beatles performed their final concert in 1966.

McCartney’s Bay Area show is his last scheduled performance anywhere until Oct. 2, when he begins an eight-city U.S. tour leg in Lubbock, Texas. There are two gaps in his October schedule between concerts — one nine days long, the other eight days — so he could fit in a San Diego concert then, assuming Petco Park is available. Given the long odds of the Padres making it into to the postseason this year, the venue’s likely availability in late September and October seems like a very safe bet.

Accordingly, McCartney could play here either during one of those tour gaps or shortly before his Oct. 2 Lubbock show. He typically performs concerts every second or third day when on tour.

His long absence from San Diego, where The Beatles played at Balboa Stadium in 1965, has long been a source of frustration and bewilderment for area fans.

But McCartney does not plan the specific cities included in his tour itineraries — a task left to his agent, manager and tour promoters to determine. In a 2005 U-T San Diego interview, the musician many veteran fans still fondly call the “cute Beatle” was asked if he had anything against America’s Finest City.

“I can’t stand the place!” McCartney joked. “You know, you’re right. I don’t really get involved in plotting out the tours. That’s kind of a logistic problem. It’s a question of how quickly they can get the trucks from there to there. ... They know I want to play everywhere, basically. I want to give everyone a chance, so I always tell my promoters, look for places we haven’t played, or haven’t played recently ... but it’s not always possible.”

McCartney has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist and as a Beatle. His concert here will place him on the very short list of pop superstars to perform at Petco Park, following the Rolling Stones in 2005 and Madonna in 2008.

No ticket prices have been announced yet for McCartney’s Petco Park concert. However, tickets for his Candlestick Park concert are priced between $49.50 and $254 each, plus service charges. VIP ticket packages are also available for most stops on his tour, which suggests that will also be the case for his San Diego show.